1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods of tracking goods at a brick-and-mortar store, with particular emphasis on arranging and scanning the goods to expedite checkout.
2. Description of the Related Art
Within supply chain management, there is considerable interest in supplementing or replacing the current UPC (Universal Product Code) scheme used to uniquely identify and track inventory items using barcodes. The current UPC scheme is a barcode symbology that, among other things, has already greatly improved the speed and accuracy of “checkout” at grocery stores. The UPC scheme allows each item for purchase to be scanned in with an optical scanner, one item at a time, and cross-referenced with an electronic database containing price information for the associated item. This approach has largely replaced older methods of manually typing in the price of each item on a cash register. Individually tagging items with UPC barcodes can therefore reduce incidences of lost, stolen, or spoiled goods, improve the efficiency of demand-driven manufacturing and supply, facilitate the profiling of product usage, and improve the customer experience. However, one disadvantage of item tracking using the UPC scheme is that reading a barcode requires an optical line-of-sight and in some cases appropriate orientation of the bar code relative to the sensor. Also, items with barcodes must be scanned one item at a time. Additionally, damage to even a relatively minor portion of the bar code can prevent successful detection and interpretation of the bar code.
Various item-tracking solutions using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags have been proposed as a substitute for using bar codes in supply chain management and, in particular, supermarket checkout systems. RFID-based scanning systems typically involve an active scanning device, and a transponder in the form of an active, passive, or semi-passive RFID tag affixed to each item. RFID tags can be read from up to several meters away, and RFID scanners are capable of multi-directional reading, allowing RFID tracking systems to scan for multiple items in the vicinity of the scanner. Efforts to implement conventional RFID-based scanning systems have, therefore, largely been directed to scanning an entire shopping cart full of items at once, in an effort to save time over the traditional checkout process where item bar codes are manually scanned in one at a time. However, difficulties have arisen in obtaining an accurate accounting of shopping cart contents, due primarily to the size and volume of a typical shopping cart. Items near the center of a cart are not reliably detectable with an RFID scanner using existing technology.
Despite the shortcomings of previously-proposed RFID-based product scanning systems, however, RFID technology remains a powerful tool with a great deal of potential for use in supply chain management, inventory management, and, in particular, for expediting checkout at supermarkets and other shopping venues. Therefore, an improved inventory scanning solution is desired.